Distributing panel



Filed Jun 18. 1927 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR 0/2' ver S Jlmings Q. 0 NEYNov. 28, 1933, o. 5. JENNINGS DISTRIBUTING PANEL Filed June 18. 1927 3Sheets-Sheet 2 MQQ mm m h. I

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MANN Nb INVENTOR 0/) van 5. Jenni/793 WITNESSES: #Q M ATfORNEY Nov. 28,1933. o. 5. JENNINGS I DISTRIBUTING PANEL Filed June 18, 192'? 3Sheets-Sheet 5 lNVENTOR 0/1 ver ,5? Jnm'rzgs ATTORNEY WITNESSES:

f v flaw WA Patented Nov. 28, 1933 DISTRIBUTING PANEL 3 Oliver S.Jennings, Mansfield, Ohio, assignor to Westinghouse Electric &Manufacturing Company, a corporation of Pennsylvania Application June18, 1927.

Serial No. 199.686

5 Claims. (Cl. 247-40) My invention relates to distributing panels forelectrical circuits of apartment houses and like structures whereincontrolling means for a plurality of lighting circuits is enclosedwithin a sheet-metal housing.

One object of my invention is to provide a distributing panel whereincircuit breakers are used for controlling branch-line circuits in placeof the usual switch and fuse.

Another object of my invention is to provide a distributing panel of thecircuit-breaker type wherein the circuit breakers are enclosed ininsulating housings that are provided with sealed covers and constitute,in themselves, complete circuit-breaker units.

Another object of my invention is to provide a distributing panel havingthe above noted cuit-breaker units.

Another object of my invention is to provide a distributing panelwherein circuit-breaker units are provided with terminal recesses forreceiving the conductor terminals and wherein the terminals are confinedin such manner that access may not be had thereto through the opening inthe panel-housing cover.

These and other objects that will be made apparent throughout thefurther description of my invention are attained by means of the panelmechanism hereinafter described and illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings wherein:

Figure 1 is front elevational view of acircuitbreaker-distributing-panel housing embodying features of myinvention,

Fig. 2 is a transverse section through a portion of the housing taken onthe line II-II of Fig. 1 disclosing a circuit-breaker unit in sectionand the circuit breaker in side elevation,

Fig. 3 is a vertical section through a portion of the distributing paneltaken on the line III-III of Fig. 1,

Fig. 4 is a wiring diagram of the circuit through a unit of theapparatus.

lieferring to the drawings, the distributing panel comprises asheet-metalhousing 4 having end walls 5 and 6 and side walls 7 and 8that are provided with inwardly extending flanges 9 to which a cover orsheet metal trim 11 is attached by means of screws 12. I

The cover is provided with an opening 13 that is closed by a door 14mounted upon hinges 15 at- 80 tached to the trim 11. The door isprovided with offset portions 16 for accommodating the operating handlesof the circuit breaker, to be hereinafter described.

Referring to Figs. 2 and 3. each circuit-breaker unit comprises aninsulating housing 1'7 that is adapted to be mounted upon Z-bars 18 andattached thereto by means of screws 19 which extend through lugs 21integral with the housing 17. Within the housing, is mounted a circuitbreaker comprising a supporting frame 22 that is secured to the bottomof the housing by screws 23 and carries pivot shafts 24 and 25. Thecircuit breaker is-of a type described and illustrated in a copendingapplication Serial No. 752,336, now Patent No. 1,726,233 issued August2'7, 1929 to Hubert K. Krantz, and assigned to the Westinghouse Electricand Manufacturing Company.

Since no claim is made to the specific form of circuit breaker hereinillustrated, a brief descripso tion thereof willsuflice.

A switch-arm carrier 26 of V-shape is pivotally mounted on the shaft 24and is retained in the closed position shown in Fig. 2 by means of alatch arm 27 that is pivoted on the shaft 25 and is retained againstreleasing movement or rotation in a counter-clockwise direction by meansof a bimetal thermal-element 28 that is secured to one end of the bottomof the housing 17 and carries a latch clip 29 at its free end that isinsulated 9o therefrom. by means of insulating strips 31.

The switch-arm carrier is provided with an angular recess 32, and theswitch arm 33 is pivoted at 34 in the recess 32.

An operating handle 35 is pivoted upon the frame 22 by a pin 36 and isprovided with an arm 37 that carries a tension spring 38 which ispivotally connected thereto at 39 and to the switch arm 33. The spring38 is an over-center spring and tends to bias the switch arm 33 towardclosed or open position and the switch arm carrier 26 always toward theopen position. The operating handle 35 is biased toward the closedposition shown in full lines when the spring is in position shown inFig. 2.

The switch arm 33 is provided with a movable bridging contact member 41that is pivotally mounted in the clip 42 and insulated from the switcharm 33 by an insulating plate 43. The

contact member 41 serves as a bridging switch for connecting stationarycontact members 44 and 45 to establish the circuit through the load inthe manner illustrated in Fig. 4.

To separate the contact members 41 from the contact members 44 and 45and to thereby open the circuit, the operating handle 35 is moved to theposition A indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2. Such movement causes theouter end of the spring 38 to be moved over a center line coincidentwith the switch arm 33 which causes the switch arm to be moved to openposition wherein the arm rests against the side 46 of the slot or notch32. To close the switch, the operating handle is moved from thedotted-line position A to the full-line position shown in Fig. 2. Theover-center spring 38 is again moved over center and the switch armcaused to move to the position shown in Fig. 2.

In a manner to be hereinafter referred to, the current through thecircuit breaker traverses the bimetal thermo-element 28 and, in theevent of an injurious overload, causes the bimetal element to heat andto deflect toward the left until the latch 29 clears the tip 47 of thelatch 2'7 and thus releases it. The tension of the spring 38 causesclockwise rotation of the switch-arm carrier 26 which forces the latch2''! to a releasing position, permitting the latch finger 49 of theswitch -arm carrier 26 to move clear of the latch. Rotation of theswitch-arm carrier in a clockwise direction causes the pivotal point 34of the switch arm 33 to move over the center line of the spring 38 andthereafter causes the switch arm to move to its open position inengagement with the side 46 of the notch 32 in the carrier 26.

It will be seen from the foregoing that, in response to an overloadcondition which occurs at predetermined period of time, the switch armis moved to the open position. The carrier 26 may be returned to theposition shown in Fig. 2 and relatched therein by moving the operatinghandle 35 to the position A shown in dotted lines.

The parts of the circuit breaker are so relatively positioned that, whenthe circuit breaker is opened in response to an overload or shortcircuitcondition and the switch arm carrier has moved to its open position, theoperating handle 35 is moved to its intermediate position 3 indicated bybroken lines in Fig. 2, thus indicating whether the circuit breaker hasbeen tripped to open position. This feature is of particular importancewhere a number of circuit breakers are mounted in the same panelhousing, because it is necessary to determine which circuit breaker hasopened the circuit. The intermediate position of a handle of a circuitbreaker thus gives an indication which circuit breaker has opened.

In order to cause the circuit breaker to open instantaneously under suchshort-circuit conditions an electromagnet 51 is connected in series withthe bimetal element and serves to attract an iron armature 52 mounted onthe latch clip 29. A sudden surge of current, such as is induced by ashort circuit or a very severe overload, attracts the armature 52 towardthe electromagnet and releases the circuit breaker. By reason of theattraction of the electromagnet under overload conditions the thermalelement will interrupt the circuit within a shorter time interval thanwould ordinarily be the case. The electromagnet, however, is of suchcapacity that it does not materially affect the operation of thermalelement under ordinary load conditions.

In order to limit the amount of current that can pass through thecircuit breaker under shortcircuit conditions, a choke coil 53 isconnected in series with the bimetal element and the circuit breaker.The choke coil comprises a coil 54 enclosed within an iron casing 55that is attached to the innermost end of the insulating housing 1'7, asindicated in Fig. 2. The choke coils serve also to support the bus bars56 of the feed conductors, the bars being attached to the choke coils bymeans of the screws 57 that are carried by brackets 58 secured to thechoke-coil casing 55. A resistance element may be used instead of thechoke coil.

Current enters the circuit breaker through the bus bars 56 and, afterpassing through the choke coil 54, electromagnet 51, bimetal thermalelement 28 and the contact member 41, passes to the conductor 59 througha terminal screw 63.

The conductor 59 extends into a terminal recess 62 provided exteriorlyof the housing 17 and is provided with an attaching screw 63 to whichthe terminal 64 of a conductor 65 of the load circuit is attached. Theend of the conductor 65 extends into the recess 62 through an opening 66provided in the end wall of the housing 17.

Referring to Fig. 1, it will be noted that a distributing panel havingsix circuit-breaker units is illustrated, three of the units being shownin full lines on the left side of the figure. The circuit breakers arearranged into rows, each having three circuit-breaker units. The rows ofunits are spaced apart to provide a central chamber 67, in which the busbars 56 and the choke coils 53 are disposed. The chamber 67 is adaptedto be sealed by an insulating cover 68 (Fig. 2) that is mounted on theadjacent ends of the circuitbreaker housing and retained in position bymeans of screws 69 that are threaded into brackets '71 secured to thebottom wall of the panel, the heads of the screws being disposed incounterbores 72 that are filled with sealing wax 73 to prevent removalof the covers 68 by unauthorized persons.

The circuit-breaker housings 17 are provided with insulating covers 74that are attached to the housings by screws 75 having their endsdisposed in counterbores 76 that are sealed with sealing wax '77 toprevent unauthorized access to the circuit-breaker housing. Each coveris provided. with a slot '78 through which the operating handle 35projects to render it accessible for operation when the cover 14 isopened.

It will be noted that the outer ends of the circuit breaker units arespaced from the side walls 7 and 8 of the panel housing to providewiring gutters 78' in which the branch-line conductors 65 are assembledwithin the panel housing.

The circuit-breaker units, when assembled within the housing, serve toentirely close the opening 13 in the trim 11 and, therefore, precludeaccess to the wiring gutters or the space surrounding thecircuit-breaker units by unauthorized persons. In order to gain accessto the wiring gutters, it is necessary to remove the trim plate 11. Theterminal recesses 62 are also covered by insulating plates '79 that aresecured to the housing by screws 81 having their heads disposed inrecesses 82 filled with insulating compound 83.

The ends of the branch-line terminals 59 are disposed within therecesses 62 and are protected from contact with foreign materials, andthe branch-line conductors .65. cannot engage the terminals ofneighboring circuit-breaker units.

Fig. 4 illustrates diagrammatically the circuit connections of thecircuit-breaker unit. The

bus bar 56 is connected to a feed conductor and the choke coil 53,electromagnet 51 and bimetal thermal-element 28 are connected in series,one of the terminals of the thermal-element being connected to a contactmember 44. The bridging contact member 41 connects the members 44 and45, and the current flows to the load circuit through the conductor 59and terminal screw 63. One end of the load circuit is connected to aneutral bus bar 84.

By reason of the circuit-breaker-panel apparatus above described, theuse of branch-line fuses is eliminated, and the service can be restoredin a circuit that has been opened in response to an overload orshort-circuit condition by simply actuating the circuit-breakeroperating handle 35 to the closed position. If the short-circuit orsevere overload condition prevails when the operating handle isactuated, the circuit breaker will not latch in closed position but willsnap open the instant the contacts 41, 44 and 45 engage.

Unauthorized persons cannot gain access to the circuit-breaker mechanismor the wiring connections and, consequently, the circuit breaker cannotbe tampered with or its attachments altered nor can the operator come incontact with live conduits.

I claim as my invention:

1. A distributing panel comprising a housing, a cover therefor having anopening therein, a door for closing the opening, and a plurality ofenclosed circuit-breaker units disposed within the housing and spacedfrom the side walls thereof to provide a wiring gutter, the said unitshaving their outer faces adjacent the cover for preclud-= ing access tothe wiring gutter through the said opening and the said units each beingprovided at their outer ends with an external recess for confining thecircuit-breaker terminals and a sealed cover for the recess forpreventing unauthorized access to the said terminals.

2. A distributing panel comprising a housing, a cover therefor having anopening therein, a door for closing the opening, a plurality of enclosedc rcuit-breaker units arranged in two spaced rows,

their adjacent ends being spaced apart to provide a central chamber forthe feeder bus bars and their outer ends being spaced from the sidewalls of the housing to provide wiring gutters, circuitbreaker terminalsextending from their units into the said chamber and the said wiringgutters, current-limiting reactors supported within the chamber upon thesaid units, bus bars supported on the said reactors and a cover for thechamber for precluding access to the bus bars through the opening in thehousing cover.

3. A distributing panel comprising a housing, a cover therefor, havingan opening therein, a door for closing the opening, a plurality ofenclosed circuit-breaker units having sealed mech= anisms arranged inspaced rows, the adjacent ends thereof providing a central chamber forfeeder bus bars, means to seal said chamber, and their outer ends spacedfrom the side walls of the housing to provide wiring gutters, feeder busbars within the central chamber, circuit-breaker terminals accessible inthe central chamber and in the wiring gutters, current-limiting devicessupported between the bus bars and the terminals, the said bus barsbeing connectible to the circuit breakers and means for precludingaccess to the space occupied by the bus bar.

4. In a distributing panel, in combination, a housing, a plurality ofautomatic circuit breakers having mechanism enclosed under seal andhaving two off positions, said breakers being disposed within thehousing, and an operating handle for each circuit breaker accessiblefrom the front of said housing, said handles being disposed to beactuated to an intermediate position when their respectivecircuit-breaker mechanisms are opened in response to an overloadcondition thereby indicating which circuit breaker has opened.

5. In a distributing panel, in combination, a housing. a cover thereforhaving an opening therein, a door for closing the opening, a pluralityof circuit breakers having mechanism enclosed under seal disposed withinthe housing and having two off positions, an operating handle for eachcircuit breaker accessible when said door is opened, said handles beingdisposed to be actuated manually to an extreme of! position, or to anintermediate of! position when their respective circuit-breakermechanisms are opened in response to an overload condition therebyindicating which circuit breaker has opened in response to an overload.

OLIVER 8. JENNINGS.

